French Pressuring Algeria to Join Mali Intervention

Al Qaeda-linked militants in northern Mali causing concerns

ALGIERS, Algeria, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- French President Francois Hollande flies to Algeria, North Africa's military heavyweight, this week seeking to persuade its leaders to back armed intervention in Mali to crush Islamist militants there, an undertaking many see as fraught with risk.

Hollande will have a problem, even though the general feeling is that intervention by a 6,000-strong force drawn from regional powers, with France and the United States in the background, is months away.